This invention relates to a telephone answering device, and more particularly to a base arrangement for a telephone answering device which enables mounting the telephone answering device interchangeably on a wall or on a desk, while maintaining the front panel of the telephone answering device in the desired orientation (inclination) relative to the wall or desk for easy and convenient operability thereof.
The following discussion and description is given with respect to a telephone answering device. However, the interchangeable base arrangement of the present invention is equally applicable to ordinary telephones and ordinary answering devices (without built-in telephones), and to other telephone equipment which can be interchangeably mounted on a desk top or on a wall.
In the prior art, various mounting arrangements have been provided for interchangeably mounting a telephone set or a telephone answering device (TAD) to either a wall or a desk, as desired. Generally, the same base member is provided for both types of mounting, but the base member (or a part thereof) is oriented in different positions relative to the main housing of the telephone set in order to achieve the desired inclinations or orientations for mounting the telephone set on either a wall or on a desk top or table top. Typical examples of such prior art configurations are shown in, for example, the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,696; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,998; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,420; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,033; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,079; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 279,372; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 318,661.
None of the known arrangements for interchangeably mounting the telephone device to the wall or a desk top provide substantially seamless integration of the base member with the main body member of the device, and none are arranged to provide a two-part base member, one symmetrical part of which is fixed to the housing of the apparatus, and the other part of which is removably attached in different orientations to the symmetrical fixed base member. That is, none of the known arrangements provide wall mount or desk-top mount devices wherein a composite base, comprised of fixed and removable portions, has substantially the same appearance in either orientation of the removable portion.